Cultural Erosion of Balinese Indigenous Knowledge of Food and Nutraceutical Plants

Abstract

The island of Bali has several traditional Aga villages that survive under the pressures of an intense tourist industry and agricultural changes. In order to understand possible impacts on traditional ethnobotanical knowledge (TEK) in Bali, we interviewed local people living in 13 traditional villages regarding the number of known plants and their uses. We analyzed socioeconomic factors influencing change of such knowledge at both individual (informant) and community (village) level. We identified a total of 149 food and nutraceutical plants being used in the study area. Neither gender, occupation, income, nor level of formal education had a significant effect on TEK. However, informant’s age and village status were found to play an important role in the retention of TEK at an individual level. At the village level, the use of Internet/smart phones was an important predictor of cultural erosion

Prioritizing Wild Edible Plants for potential new crops based on Deciduous Forest traditional knowledge by a Rancher community

“…Unlike the reported for some indigenous communities (Eyssartier et al 2011, Cruz et al 2013, Sujarwo et al 2014, Narchi et al 2015, knowledge erosion was no observed among the younger and the older male ranchers, at least in the number of species they cited. This result agrees with the reported for a non-indigenous community in Rayones, Nuevo León, Mexico; however, unlike our finding, they found that women cited more species (edible and no edible) than men (Estrada-Castillon et al 2014).…”

“…cultural heritage, gender perspective, socioeconomics, and cooking of edible species) (Pieroni 2001, da Silva et al 2006, do Nascimento et al 2013, Alonso-Aguilar et al 2014, Sujarwo et al 2014. Moreover, few of these approaches include plant features more closely related with food security such as its role in diet, conversion into processed products, or postharvest life (features from the perspective of the food science and technology).…”

Ethnobotanical Study of Cultivated Plants in Home Gardens of Traditional Villages in Bali (Indonesia)

“…The island continues to be rich in traditional ethnobotanical knowledge (TEK), as confirmed by the general inventory on traditional plant usage (Astuti et al 2000), by detailed investigations on medicinal, aromatic, and cosmetic plants (Leurs 2010), and studies on wild and semi-wild edible plants (Sujarwo et al 2015). Despite this bio-cultural diversity (Agung 2005), we have observed an increasing erosion of TEK over recent years (Sujarwo et al 2014). Although there are ethnobotanical surveys from Bali, to the best of our knowledge there are no ethnobotanical studies of cultivated plants in Balinese home gardens.…”

Beyond Turf and Lawn: Poaceae in This Age of Climate Change

“…Traditional knowledge has eroded or disappeared, as reported, for example, in Bali [56], or was saved for times of great need to survive famine, war and natural disaster without modern props. The repression and loss of cultural and ecological memory instigated by the colonialization of Indigenous peoples in North America and elsewhere [57,58] has also turned around and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) informing herbal medicine is moving from the alternative fringe to a larger arena [59][60][61].…”