“I Climbed a Fig Tree, on an Apple Bashing Spree, Only Pears Fell Free”: Economic, Symbolic and Intrinsic Values of Plants Occurring in Slovenian Folk Songs Collected by K. Štrekelj (1895–1912)

Abstract

In this study we examine the occurrence of plants and their symbolic, economic, and intrinsic values in Slovenian folk songs. We have analyzed songs published by the ethnologist Karel Štrekelj between 1895 and 1912. Of the 8686 songs studied, plants occur in 1246 (14%) of them. A total of 93 plant taxa were found, belonging to 48 plant families. Grapevine is the most frequently mentioned species, followed by rosemary, wheat, carnation, and lily. About half of the taxa belong to cultivated plants (52%), followed by wild plants (42%). Exotic plants (i.e., not growing in the area) are mentioned only occasionally (6%). Half of all citations (49.3%) refer to the symbolic values, such as religion, love, death, economic status, or human qualities. More than a third of the citations (36.7%) are associated with plant’s usefulness, especially consumption, while only a small percentage of citations (14.0%), relate to environmental representation. Several verses show how our appreciation of some plants, especially those used as food, has changed over the centuries. Folk songs have turned out to be interesting sources of information, and although they cannot be fully trusted as historical documents, they can still be used as sources for understanding the relationship between people and plants.

Sweet Basil between the Soul and the Table—Transformation of Traditional Knowledge on Ocimum basilicum L. in Bulgaria

“…The ritual use of O. basilicum in Europe was recorded both for Orthodox and Catholic Christian denominations, with strong connotations to marital and burial rites, the latter related to basil's denotations in the resurrection of Christ [60,78]. Hence, sweet basil was incorporated into folklore and could be found in ritual settings and decorations of people, icons, and buildings [71,[79][80][81][82]. Being used in a variety of rituals and ceremonies, O. basilicum was popularly cultivated in home gardens and is quite frequently mentioned in Bulgarian folklore, and in that of other Balkan countries [71,[83][84][85][86].…”

“…Vakarelski (1946) mentioned it as one of the important ritual plants used by the Orthodox Church in his instruction manual for field ethnographical studies in the "Plant world in Spiritual culture" section [87]. The symbolism related to sweet basil is popular in several Slavic countries, but it could be related rather to Orthodox Christianity than to some pre-Christian roots, as it is not so frequently reported for Central European countries where Catholicism is prevalent [79,80,88]. Its function in blessing bunches of Orthodox priests was considered part of the primitive/folk Christian ritual practices in Bulgaria that sought to connect earlier rituals with the Christian faith [89].…”

Ethnobotany of the ritual plants of the Adriatic islands (Croatia) associated with the Roman-Catholic ceremonial year

“…Some information on the ritual plants used in Central and Eastern Europe have been recorded in ethnobotanical publications from Slavic countries (Kolosova, 2009), e.g. Poland (Kujawska et al, 2016), Belarus (Knurjeva, 2019;Shaÿchjenka, 2016), Ukraine (Stryamets et al, 2021), Serbia (Matejić et al, 2020), Slovenia (Fišer, 2022;Mlakar, 2020) and Estonia (Kalle et al, 2022a(Kalle et al, , 2022b. e ritual and magical plants of North America can be easily searched in the Native American Ethnobotany Database (2023).…”

Ethnobotanical Analysis of Phytonyms and Plant-Related Glosses Mentioned in Bujangga Manik, a Pre-Islamic Sundanese Text (15th Century Java, Indonesia)

“…The past anthropobotanic relationship is often recorded in literary works (Pardo-de-Santayana et al, 2006;Ryan, 2018;, encompassing folksongs and poems (Cardano & Herrero, 2014;Herrero & Cardano, 2015;Fernandez-Llamazares & Lepofsky, 2019;Ivanova et al, 2021;Fiser, 2022). Even though literary texts from the past may not possess the same level of authority as historical sources, they can still be regarded as ethnobotanical documents.…”