Are the Young Less Knowledgeable? Local Knowledge of Natural Remedies and Its Transformations in the Andean Highlands

Abstract

A widespread concern among ethnobiologists is the rapid process of erosion of indigenous environmental knowledge observed worldwide. This paper examines the ongoing transformations of knowledge about natural remedies in the Quechua-speaking Andes. Freelisting exercises and interviews were conducted with 36 households at Bolivian and Peruvian study sites. (Generalized) linear mixedeffects models were used to analyze the effects of age on knowledge about medicinal plants, animals, minerals, and their uses. Our study demonstrates that younger participants knew as much about natural remedies as their elders. However, proportional knowledge about some medicinal use categories of natural remedies varied with age. We conclude that knowledge about natural remedies is generally not being lost at the study sites. Nevertheless, it is undergoing transformations in terms of specific medicinal uses. A careful understanding of these complex transformation processes is needed to better orient initiatives for the conservation of biocultural diversity in the Andes and elsewhere.

Diversity and Differential Utilization of Amaranthus spp. along the Urban-Rural Continuum of Southern Benin

“…Some studies (Gandolfo and Hanazaki 2014;Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012;Müller-Schwarze 2006) have demonstrated that traditional knowledge was not systematically declining among younger people, but rather was shaped by changing sociocultural and economic contexts. Likewise, even though the connection between local knowledge and gender has been demonstrated elsewhere (Dovie et al 2008;Souto and Ticktin 2012;Voeks 2007), our results showed that amaranths are similarly used by men and women, pointing out the importance of these indigenous vegetables for local communities.…”

“…Erosion of agro-biodiversity is associated with loss of related knowledge, and for a number of authors, declining indigenous knowledge is a consequence of modernization and acculturation (Brandt et al 2013;Gandolfo and Hanazaki 2014;Reyes-García et al 2007;Voeks and Leony 2004). Others working in Mexico (Zarger andStepp 2004), Panama (Müller-Schwarze 2006), and Bolivia and Peru (Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012) report that indigenous knowledge of plant resources is resilient to the forces of modernization and economic development (Furusawa 2009;Vandebroek and Balick 2012;Zarger and Stepp 2004). These differences in opinions might be due to the diversity of sociocultural and environmental contexts of the surveyed communities, especially in terms of transmission of knowledge through generations (Cherry 2014;Dovie et al 2008;Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012), urban and agricultural development policies (Boillat et al 2013;Eyssartier et al 2011;Gomez-Baggethun et al 2010), and ecological conditions (Ladio and Lozada 2004).…”

“…Others working in Mexico (Zarger andStepp 2004), Panama (Müller-Schwarze 2006), and Bolivia and Peru (Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012) report that indigenous knowledge of plant resources is resilient to the forces of modernization and economic development (Furusawa 2009;Vandebroek and Balick 2012;Zarger and Stepp 2004). These differences in opinions might be due to the diversity of sociocultural and environmental contexts of the surveyed communities, especially in terms of transmission of knowledge through generations (Cherry 2014;Dovie et al 2008;Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012), urban and agricultural development policies (Boillat et al 2013;Eyssartier et al 2011;Gomez-Baggethun et al 2010), and ecological conditions (Ladio and Lozada 2004). In West Africa, where urban areas are growing very rapidly and where local knowledge is not well documented, it is important to understand how urban development is affecting people-plant relationships.…”

Gendered medicinal plant knowledge contributions to adaptive capacity and health sovereignty in Amazonia

“…Local knowledge systems are generally threatened and eroding but, at the same time, many are also dynamic and adaptive (Reyes-García 2015). People’s ability to generate, transform, accommodate, transmit, and apply local knowledge in an integrative way is critical to the resilience of such systems (Ellen et al 2005; Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012), and the erosion of medicinal plant knowledge may compromise a community’s adaptive capacity and resilience more generally. In this paper, we focus on this second pillar of local medical systems.…”

Relative Importance and Knowledge Distribution of Medicinal Plants in a Kichwa Community in the Ecuadorian Amazon

“…Age, however, has been previously suggested as a predictor of medicinal plant knowledge (Alencar et al 2014;Ayantunde et al 2008;Mathez-Stiefel et al 2012;Quinlan and Quinlan 2007), and younger individuals may not have the same regard for medicinal plants when managing forest resources. On one occasion during our fieldwork, we observed an example of the intergenerational difference in attitudes towards medicinal plants when an elder commented that, against his advice, his son cut down a medicinal plant when clearing forest to plant coffee.…”