“We Became Rich and We Lost Everything”: Ethnobotany of Remote Mountain Villages of Abruzzo and Molise, Central Italy

Abstract

Profound socioeconomic changes affected mountains of Central Italy during the last century and many traditional agro-pastoral activities were abandoned. A few ethnobotanical studies in this area have specifically documented local wild plants used decades ago, but without analyzing in-depth how and why Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) has eroded or changed over time. In this study, we 1) document ethnobotanical uses of four high-altitude remote villages of Central Italy, 2) discuss how these uses have changed over time, comparing them with fieldwork that was conducted 40 years earlier; and 3) assess how plant uses have changed across space, particularly whether the remoteness of villages or the occurrence of Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) have affected TEK linked to wild plants. Sixty semi-structured interviews revealed the use of 83 taxa belonging to 35 families. We did not find any relationship between SNS and the richness of TEK, as these SNS were not inhabited by monastic communities that could have shared their scholarly knowledge. There was not a relationship between remoteness and richness of TEK. The common statement emerging from the field, “We became rich and lost everything”, revealed how socio-economic changes resulted in the rapid abandonment of traditional practices, while the ubiquity of pharmacies may have contributed to the erosion of ethnomedicinal knowledge.

Divergence of Ethnobotanical Knowledge of Slovenians on the Edge of the Mediterranean as a Result of Historical, Geographical and Cultural Drivers

“…As early as 1932, Gilmore [27] emphasised the role of ethnobotany in studying the socioeconomic characteristics of communities and their development, both from an economic and a cultural history perspective. It is important to remember that ethnobotanical knowledge in a community also changes over time under the influence of environmental, social, economic, and political changes [28,29].…”

Forest Dynamic in the Italian Apennines

“…To this it must be added the loss of "cultural" diversity represented by the disappearance of traditional landscapes that enclose the identity values of the territory and represent an important legacy for local communities [54].…”

Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable Anthropocene

“…Vital forms of TEK need be transferred from one generation to the next and only then may they be shared more extensively across the globe as part of a more cosmopolitan vision. Whether they have been entirely lost, are still available or can only be found among insulated communities and a few surviving elders, the primary ethical goal would be to secure their continuity: for instance, aspects of TEK can still be identified within Western Europe after almost total cultural loss in the midst of mass consumerism, such as in Italy [10].…”

“…Finally, I call for further investigation into how researchers can come forward with more examples, perhaps less traditional, of actually existing (or utopian) communities that might provide pathways to resistance, beyond resilience, to the looming global environmental catastrophe [5][6][7][8][9]. While this may not necessarily be achieved by emulating these societies, an easier option could be to actively search within one's own society for more directly accessible forms of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) [10]. In turn, this may require exploring to what extent intergenerational transmission of knowledge has evaporated in each specific society or has remained somewhat hidden.…”