abstract: There is an ongoing debate around the extent that anthropogenic processes influence both plant species distribution dynamics and plant biodiversity patterns. Past human food use may leave a strong legacy on not only the extent that food plants are dispersed and fill their potential geographic ranges, but also on food plant species richness in areas that have been densely populated by humans through time. The persistent legacy of plant domestication on contemporary species composition has been suggested to be significant in some regions. However, little is known about the effects that past human food use has had on the biogeography of the Sonoran Desert despite its rich cultural diversity and species richness. I used a combination of ecoinformatics, ethnobotanical, and archaeological data sources to quantitatively assess the impacts of pre-Columbian, and in some cases, more recent, human-mediated dispersal of food plants on the Sonoran Desert landscape. I found that (i) food plants do fill more of their potential geographic ranges than their un-used congeners, and that polyploidy, growth form, and life form are correlated with range filling and past food usage. I also found that (ii) both pre-Columbian and contemporary human population presence are correlated with relative food plant species richness. Thus, both past human food use and contemporary human activities may have influenced the geographic distribution of food plants at regional scales as well as species richness patterns. My research emphasizes that there is an interplay between ecological and anthropogenic processes, and that, therefore, humans must be considered as part of the landscape and included in ecological models. / Dissertation/Thesis / Supplemental Raster Files / Supplemental Spreadsheet Files / Masters Thesis Plant Biology and Conservation 2019

There is a considerable amount of unpublished source material on Kalapuyan ethnography. This consists primarily of manuscript field notes from three linguistically trained scholars: Albert S. Gatschet, who collected Kalapuyan linguistic and ethnographic data during a visit to Grand Ronde Reservation in 1877, Leo J. Frachtenberg, who worked with a number of Kalapuyan informants from 1913 to 1915, and Melville Jacobs, who worked with the last surviving speakers of Kalapuyan languages during a number of sessions between 1928 and 1936. Data from these three authorities, plus other available data, reveal many details about aboriginal Kalapuyan life (“aboriginal” here referring to the period from around first White contact until removal to the reservation). Any attempt to reconstruct ethnographic descriptions of the aboriginal Kalapuyans should fully utilize these available data. I intend this thesis as a beginning effort toward that end. It seemed to me that the ethnographic notes scattered through the Gatschet manuscripts, representing as they do the knowledge of informants who had reached adulthood under pre-reservation conditions, would prove particularly interesting in terms of ethnographic reconstruction. Thus, I selected the Tualatin Kalapuyans, the subject of Gatschet’s main effort, as my own focus. In view of the quantity of data involved, I further restricted my scope to much less than an overall ethnographic description of the aboriginal Tualatin. I have concentrated upon two related aspects of that larger picture -- subsistence and ethnobiology. Under the former, I consider aboriginal habitat, general subsistence economy, territorial and seasonal availability of subsistence resources, seasonal cycles involved in harvest of resources, subsistence-related aspects of regional interrelationships such as trade, and specific subsistence-related activities and practices. Under ethnobiology, I consider native knowledge and uses of plant and animal resources. In Chapter IV, some additional ethnographic information unrelated to these two main areas is also presented concerning the identification and localization of Tualatin winter-village groups.

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The objectives of this research were to evaluate the antibacterial activity and to determine the chemical composition of a list of medicinal plants used by Native Americans in California. Artemisia californica, Mimulus aurantiacus, Equisetum telmateia, Equisetum hyemale, and Marah fabacea were selected from a list of plants reported as having been used for ailments related to infections by tribes located in California. The extracts obtained through steam distillation from E. telmateia, E. hyemale and M. fabacea were assayed for in vitro antibacterial activity against 16 Gram-negative and 6 Gram-positive bacteria using disk diffusion assays and measuring the diameters of inhibition zones. E. telmateia showed the most promising antibacterial activity. The extracts from A. californica, M. aurantiacus and E. telmateia were analyzed for chemical composition, finding eucalyptol, thujone, eugenol, caryophyllene, germacrene D, and propanal as some of the secondary metabolites identified using GC-MS. Our results suggest that E. telmateia can be a potential source for novel antimicrobials against pathogenic bacteria.

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No / A cross-cultural comparison of traditional household remedies in primary health care and ritual healing practices in two economically and socio-demographically similar communities in Lucania (inland southern Italy) was considered: Ginestra/Zhurë, inhabited by ethnic Albanians, who migrated to the area during the 15th century, and Castelmezzano, inhabited by autochthonous South-Italians. In Ginestra/Zhurë, the number of traditional natural remedies (mainly derived from local medicinal plants) was only half of that in the local folk pharmacopoeia quoted in Castelmezzano. However, ritual magic-healing practices still play a central role among the Albanians in Ginestra/Zhurë, while they do not in Castelmezzano. Reasons for this shift, as well as components that have affected cultural adaptation phenomena and transitions among the Albanians are discussed.

L’herboristerie, activité consacrée à la préparation et à la vente de plantes médicinales, se renouvelle depuis les années 1970 autour d’acteurs aux pratiques techniques et approches scientifiques divergentes. Parmi eux, des paysans-herboristes cultivent, cueillent puis transforment eux-mêmes les espèces végétales qu’ils commercialisent tout en mobilisant les usages de la médecine végétale populaire transmis par l’ethnobotanique pour qualifier leurs qualités thérapeutiques. L’ethnobotanique est une discipline vouée à l’étude des relations flore-société investie notamment par des acteurs non-académiques qui travaillent sur le recueil des savoirs naturalistes populaires. La thèse met en lumière les ressorts de la relation que les paysans-herboristes tissent avec le végétal et la façon dont ils utilisent l’ethnobotanique pour asseoir la légitimité de leurs pratiques. En échangeant des savoirs sur les propriétés médicinales du végétal, il apparaît que les institutions de la recherche et du patrimoine d’une part, les paysans-herboristes et les ethnobotanistes d’autre part, participent à un processus de production collective de connaissances sur les plantes orienté vers le développement de l’autonomie thérapeutique. La thèse met également en évidence l’attention particulière des paysans-producteurs aux vulnérabilités humaines et végétales et la prise en compte de l’intentionnalité des plantes qui caractérise leur pratique de l’herboristerie. Les données de terrain ont été recueillies dans différents contextes entrelacés : les institutions patrimoniales et scientifiques, les arènes de l’herboristerie française et les fermes des paysans-herboristes. / Herbalism, or the activity of preparing and selling medicinal plants, has been going through a phase of renewal since the 1970’s, thanks to the actions of various participants whose technical practices and scientific approaches markedly differ. Among them, are the farmer-herbalists, who grow and pick medicinal plants, which they transform and commercialise, mobilising the traditions of popular plant medicine relayed by ethnobotany. Ethnobotany, a field of study which focuses on the relationships between plants and societies, is being invested by new players who, independently from academic institutions, work to collect popular naturalistic knowledge. This doctoral thesis proposes to shed light on the dynamics underlying the relationship that farmer-herbalists establish with the plant world, and on their use of ethnobotany as an argument to legitimise their practices. It appears that, through an exchange of knowledge about the medicinal properties of plants, institutions of research and conservation on the one hand, farmer-herbalists and ethnobotanists on the other hand, both contribute to the constitution of a collective body of knowledge on plants which promotes therapeutic autonomy. The thesis also emphasizes that the farmer-producers are particularly attentive to the vulnerabilities of both humans and plants, and that they take the plants’ intentionality into consideration – a defining characteristic of their herbalistic practices. The field data was collected in an array of varied, though intermingled, contexts: conservation and scientific institutions, the various arenas of French herbalism, and the farms of the farmer-herbalists.

The Mountain Pima of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua, Mexico, utilize a variety of domesticated and nondomesticated resources. Part of their agricultural system consists of shifting, or swidden, cultivation on steep hillsides. Wild edible plants contribute significant amounts of vitamins and minerals to the diet on a seasonal basis. The drought of 1988 caused a decrease in the availability of many resources, but an increase in availability of roots of saraviqui (Prionosciadium townsendii). A dynamic, nonlinear optimization study of Mountain Pima diet included requirements for adequate amounts of energy, protein, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Oxalate content of several plant foods and seasonal variation in resource availability were incorporated into the study. Two methods were compared: time minimization and a nutrient indexing method minimizing the product of the absolute value of the natural logarithm of the ratio of recommended intake to actual intake rates. This method allowed simultaneous optimization of several different parameters. The nutrient indexing model matched the actual diet of the Mountain Pima somewhat better than the traditional energy minimization model. It predicted higher use of noncultivated plant species and of animal resources than the time minimization model. Analyses were conducted for years of adequate rainfall and for the drought year. A list of 612 plant species collected in the community of Nabogame is also included.

Resumo: Na busca por alimentos os seres humanos vêm, ao longo do tempo desenvolvendo formas e técnicas ou de coleta ou de produção, para obter o que lhes é necessário para a sobrevivência física. Assim, o surgimento da agricultura produziu os impactos de uma revolução social e cultural sobre a humanidade há cerca de dez ou doze mil anos atrás. Entre os povos que desenvolveram agricultura estão os indígenas das Américas. No Brasil habitam cerca de 460 mil índios, e mais da metade da população indígena está localizada nas regiões Norte e Centro-Oeste do país. Os Paresi, que se autodenominam Halíti, são habitantes tradicionais dos chapadões do estado do Mato Grosso. Este grupo indígena está inserido em uma área ecotonal de cerrado e Amazônia que, ao longo do tempo, tem sofrido diversos tipos de exploração, o que ocasiona dificuldades para sua sustentação e sobrevivência física. A pesquisa de campo ocorreu no período de 2008 a 2009, na aldeia Paraíso, situada na Terra Indígena (T.I.) Juininha, município de Tangará da Serra, MT. O objetivo principal foi descrever e interpretar em profundidade as práticas agrícolas tradicionais indígenas da etnia Paresi no cultivo e coleta de plantas alimentícias. O trabalho de campo foi realizado por meio de abordagem qualitativa, utilizando entrevistas não estruturadas e semi-estruturadas, conversas informais e observação participante ativa. Paralelamente a esta atividade, as plantas, citadas como alimento, foram fotografadas, para identificação botânica. Como resultado verificou-se, que nas atividades da roça distinguiram-se as seguintes etapas componentes do calendário agrícola: escolha da área, broca, derrubada, queimada, coivara, plantio, tratos culturais, oferecimento, colheita e replantio. Além disso, algumas plantas são toleradas ou manejadas dentro e no entorno da roça, como o timbó usado na pesca... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In the search for food, human beings have over time developed systems and technologies, or the collection or production to get what they need for physical survival. Thus the emergence of agriculture has produced the impacts of social and cultural revolution on humanity about ten or twelve thousand years ago. Among people who developed agriculture are the indigenous people of the Americas. In Brazil there are 460 thousand Indians, and more than half of them is located in the North and Midwest of the country. Paresi Indians who call themselves Haliti, are traditional inhabitants of the Plains of the state of Mato Grosso. This indigenous group is housed in an area of deciduous savanna and Amazon, which over time has undergone various kinds of exploitation, causing difficulties for their support and physical survival. The fieldwork took place from 2008 to 2009, the village located in Paradise settlement, Juininha Indigenous Land, city of Tangará da Serra, MT. The main objective was to describe the traditional agricultural practices of the Paresi, the cultivation and collection of food plants. The field work was conducted through a qualitative approach, using unstructured and semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and active participant observation . Alongside this activity, the plants mentioned as food were photographed for botanical identification. As a result it was found that the activities of the farm distinguished the following stages of the agricultural calendar components: choice of the area, drill, felling, burning, slash, planting, cultivation, delivery, harvest and replanting. In addition, some plants are tolerated or managed in and around the farm, such as fish poison used in fishing. Five landraces of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) grown in the selected field were detected. The roots are harvested and processed by the women who turn into a type of drink called... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Lin Chau Ming / Coorientador: Isabel de Carvalho / Banca: Sarita Leonel / Banca: Maristela Simões do Carmo / Banca: Germano Guarim Neto / Banca: Maria José Alencar Vilela / Doutor