Tag: Michelle Scalise Sugiyama

Transmission of Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge Among the Wichí of the Bolivian Gran Chaco

Presenter(s): Itzel Quiroz

Co Presenter(s): Michelle Scalise Sugiyama

Faculty Mentor(s): Michelle Scalise Sugiyama & Marcela Mendoza

Poster 39

Session: Sciences

Western conservation research is increasingly recognizing the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) for preserving and managing wild resources. Because indigenous peoples are increasingly faced with the loss of their language and traditional subsistence practices, documentation of TEK is urgently needed. However, it is unclear how this knowledge is stored and transmitted. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that stories (e.g., myths, legends, folktales) are an important means of TEK storage and transmission in indigenous cultures. Focusing on the botanical knowledge of the Wichí of the Bolivian Gran Chaco, we predicted that their oral tradition would contain stories about important plant resources, and that these stories would contain information useful for locating, identifying, extracting, processing, and/or predicting the availability of these resources. To test this prediction, we surveyed a collection of traditional Wichí narratives (n = 319) for stories about plants; the search yielded 39 plant stories, which were then analyzed for information about characteristics, habitat, distribution, ecological cues, management, seasonality, processing, and uses. All 39 stories contained the predicted information, which was cross-checked against the Wichí ethnographic record to ascertain that it matched actual plant use. The study concludes that oral tradition plays an important role in the transmission of Wichí practical ethnobotanical information, and may be useful for reconstructing the TEK of other indigenous peoples facing cultural disruption. Future research will analyze the oral traditions of other first nations to determine how widespread this phenomenon is.

The Role of Star Lore in Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence

Presenter(s): Caryssa Dieni—Anthropology (Archaeology)

Faculty Mentor(s): Michelle Scalise Sugiyama

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Ethnoastronomical research indicates that early agricultural societies used regular changes in the positions of asterisms to predict seasonal change and determine when to plant crops, and that this knowledge was encoded, in part, in myth . Our project investigates whether hunting-and-gathering peoples used the stars to predict seasonal availability of wild resources and, if so, whether narrative was used to transmit this knowledge . If so, we would expect star narratives to identify key stars/ asterisms, associate them with seasonal change, and reference important seasonal resources (or environmental cues associated with their availability) . To test this, we surveyed a cross-cultural sample of forager story collections for etiological star narratives: we found story collections for 74 different forager culture regions, 44 (59 .5%) of which contained star narratives . These narratives were then coded for the presence of the predicted information . Results indicate that star narratives consistently (1) provide information that facilitates identification of targeted asterisms, and (2) associate these asterisms with seasonal change and key resources . However, the information that asterisms can be used to predict seasonal change and/or resource availability tends to be implicit; thus, for each region we checked the ethnographic record to ascertain whether asterisms were indeed used for these purposes . These complementary lines of evidence strongly suggest that star myths performed an ecological function in hunter-gatherer societies.