For centuries the wellbeing of rural communities has depended on the health and resilience of local food systems. Over the last century many factors have contributed to declines in the availability and use of important traditional foods. In this thesis I have used black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) as a case study through which I explore the varying roles humans play in influencing the health of a wild forest food. Black huckleberry is one of the most sought after wild berries in British Columbia (BC). Over the past few decades huckleberry pickers and forest managers have expressed concerns over the decreasing quality and availability of these berries. To understand the different roles humans play in the ecology of black huckleberry I interviewed 17 long-time huckleberry pickers and participated in berry picking trips – in the East Kootenay region of southeastern BC. I also reviewed the academic literature on huckleberry ecology. I found that huckleberry pickers have a deep knowledge of factors affecting the health of huckleberry patches. They identify both shifting social-economic and ecological conditions in their local forests as intrinsically linked with declining huckleberry availability and health. In contrast, the scientific literature primarily focuses on ecological conditions and forest management practices, ignoring or downplaying the relationship of berry pickers to huckleberry ecology and overall quality. There are significant cultural differences between the berry pickers’ and the scientists’ views of the factors impacting the health of the berry patch. I argue that an effective approach to addressing the problem of declining quality and availability must include the valuable insights berry pickers have on how social-ecological factors affect berry health. / Graduate

Coastal Indigenous Peoples worldwide have relied on fish and other marine resources for millennia, and continue to do so despite recent degradation of ocean systems. Their traditional ecological knowledge, comprised of experiences, observations, beliefs, and lifeways, is relevant for modern marine management and conservation. This thesis explores the utility of traditional and local ecological knowledge for extending an understanding of changes over time for places or periods in which scientific data are unavailable. This thesis had three goals: 1) undertake research that is collaborative and inclusive, and that addresses priorities established by participating First Nations; 2) contribute to fisheries management and conservation recommendations by focusing on a species of cultural importance and exploring the applications of traditional and local ecological knowledge to species-level understandings; and 3) contribute a marine social-ecological case study that investigates the use of traditional and local ecological knowledge to understand change over time and provides appropriate context. Two main objectives allowed me to accomplish my goals: 1) demonstrate the application of traditional and local ecological knowledge to establish historical baselines that extend farther back in time than scientific surveys, and investigate reasons for changes, and 2) investigate the utility of a social-ecological trap framework in assessing impacts to a social-ecological system and identifying ways to escape such a trap. My case study occurred in collaboration with four First Nations (as many Indigenous Peoples of Canada are called) on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. My methods included semi-structured interviews with knowledge holders to examine traditional and local ecological knowledge of a culturally and economically important species, Yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus). In this study, I interviewed First Nations fishers and Elders (n=43), asking about: observed changes to the body sizes (length) and abundance of this species over the last ~60 years, the factors driving these changes, stewardship principles or traditional management strategies, concerns for marine resources, and perceived opportunities for cultural revitalization. I then quantified the interview participants’ current and historical estimates of size and abundance, compared interview data to current biological survey data, and qualitatively analyzed responses regarding stewardship, culture, perceived threats, and cultural solutions. I utilized the framework of a social-ecological trap to analyze responses about stewardship, traditional stories or management, and threats to culture, selecting illustrative quotes to contextualize the lived experiences of participants. Overwhelmingly, respondents had observed a decrease in Yelloweye rockfish body sizes since the 1980s. Median historical length observed by participants was nearly twice the modern length. Participants reported substantial decrease in Yelloweye rockfish abundance since the 1980s, and most stated that this change was evident in the early 2000s. Sizes of modern Yelloweye rockfish estimated by participants resembled measurements from ecological data recorded concurrently at the study region. Thus, my study extends baseline historical data of Yelloweye rockfish reliably by about 50 years. Questions about traditional stories and culture revealed the presence of a social-ecological trap created and reinforced by the interplay between species decline and colonization (e.g. the residential schooling system). When asked about traditional management or stewardship practices, only one participant could remember specific traditional stories about Yelloweye rockfish, though all participants expressed adherence to the stewardship principles of taking only what is needed and respecting all life. Though participants expressed concern about the muting of traditional ecological knowledge, culture, and language, they also highlighted key ways towards revitalization and Indigenous resurgence. The ubiquitous presence of stewardship principles suggests there are ways beyond the social trap: participants described on-going cultural revitalization efforts, recovery of depleted species and ecosystems, and the reassertion of Indigenous management rights as ways to overcome problems inherent to the social-ecological trap. My research adds to a growing body of literature that supports the use of traditional and local ecological knowledge in marine management and conservation science. Adding to this literature, my work suggests the significant value of traditional and local ecological knowledge for filling gaps in historical scientific data or in data-poor regions, and highlights the importance of appropriately contextualizing Indigenous knowledge. To overcome the social-ecological trap of knowledge loss and to achieve informed marine management, reassertion of Indigenous management rights and application of traditional management strategies to modern fisheries management is vital. / Graduate / 0326 / 0768 / 0416 / eckertleckert@gmail.com

This research investigated the feasibility and benefits of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous Louisiana coastal population in order to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability. The primary goal was to provide resource managers with a comprehensive method of assessing localized ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community's TEK to achieve this goal, the objectives were (1) to determine a method for producing vulnerability/sustainability mapping products for an ecosystem-dependent livelihood base of a coastal population that results from physical information derived from RS imagery and supported, refined, and prioritized with TEK, and (2) to demonstrate how such an approach can engage affected community residents who are interested in understanding better marsh health and ways that marsh health can be recognized, and the causes of declining marsh determined and addressed. TEK relevant to the project objectives collected included: changes in the flora and fauna over time; changes in environmental conditions observed over time such as land loss; a history of man-made structures and impacts to the area; as well as priority areas of particular community significance or concern. Scientific field data collection measured marsh vegetation health characteristics. These data were analyzed for correlation with satellite image data acquired concurrently with field data collection. Resulting regression equations were applied to the image data to produce estimated marsh health maps. Historical image datasets of the study area were acquired to understand evolution of land change to current conditions and project future vulnerability. Image processing procedures were developed and applied to produce maps that detail land change in the study area at time intervals from 1968 to 2009. This information was combined with the TEK and scientific datasets in a GIS to produce mapping products that provide new information to the coastal restoration decision making process. This information includes: 1) what marsh areas are most vulnerable; and 2) what areas are most significant to the sustainability of the community.

A pesca no estuário da Lagoa dos Patos é uma atividade em disputa. De um lado, as comunidades de pesca produzem seus territórios de pesca através dos seus respectivos Conhecimentos Ecológicos Tradicionais (CET) que embasam os diferentes modos de usos dos recursos pesqueiros, os sistemas de manejo de recursos pesqueiros tradicionais (MT). A atividade pesqueira no estuário da Lagoa dos Patos é anterior à colonização portuguesa sendo os CETs que embasam os MTs resultado de um hibridismo cultural entre indígenas, afro e luso-descendentes. De outro, o Estado Moderno implementa políticas públicas de manejo de recursos pesqueiros, sobretudo a partir da segunda metade da década de 1970, que resultam na implementação de um sistema de manejo de recursos pesqueiros moderno (MM), característico de um projeto colonial de dominação. Como resultado da implementação do MM, a pesca entra em colapso na primeira metade da década de 1970 e as indústrias pesqueiras decretam falência na década de 1980. Para solucionar a crise no setor pesqueiro, na segunda metade da década de 1990 cria-se o Fórum da Lagoa dos Patos (FLP) onde se formula a atual legislação que regulamenta a pesca no estuário da Lagoa dos Patos, a Instrução Normativa Conjunta de 2004 (INC 2004). A INC 2004 implementa um MM através da imposição de um calendário de pesca que se torna institucionalizado e, por isso, oficializado. O objetivo desta tese é descrever o processo de des-re territorialização das comunidades de pesca do estuário da Lagoa dos Patos gerado pelo Estado Moderno na implementação da INC 2004. Para atingir tal objetivo, foram utilizadas basicamente duas técnicas de pesquisa para coleta de dados do CET, que produz os territórios tradicionais, e dos conhecimentos, verdades e valores mobilizados na formulação da INC 2004: entrevistas e levantamento bibliográfico. A partir dos dados obtidos, foi necessário o desenvolvimento de uma proposta própria que se enquadra na perspectiva integradora de território: território como conhecimento. Segundo esta proposta, território é um espaço epistêmico produzido a partir do espaço. Com a tentativa de implementação da INC 2004, emerge um conflito ambiental territorial na produção de um espaço através do controle do uso de recursos pesqueiros no estuário da Lagoa dos Patos. O Estado Moderno, que exibe caráter colonial, opera estrategicamente sobre o espaço tentando forçar o curso da modernidade às comunidades de pesca na produção de um espaço epistêmico disciplinar. O resultado, se o Estado Moderno fosse bem sucedido em seu projeto de colonialismo cultural, seria um epistemicídio: a eliminação dos multiterritórios operados pelo CET com uma dinâmica multicalendárica em cada uma das comunidades de pesca artesanal do estuário e a sua substituição por um território operado por uma racionalidade ocidental com um ritmo mecânico através da imposição do Calendário Oficializado da INC 2004. As comunidades de pesca, por sua vez, resistem silenciosa e abertamente operando taticamente via CET na produção de espaços de R-existência. Surpreendentemente, em movimentos diagramáticos infinitos, ambos, Estado Moderno e comunidades de pesca, des-re-territorializam um ao outro. / Fishing in the estuary of Patos Lagoon is an activity in dispute. On the one hand, fishing communities produce their fishing territories through their respective Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which grounds the different use modes of fishery resources, the traditional resource management systems (TM). The fishing activity in Patos Lagoon estuary is prior to the Portuguese colonization and the TEKs which ground TMs are a result of a cultural hybridity among indigenous, African and Portuguese descendants. On the other hand, especially from the second half of the 1970s, the modern State has been implementing policies for fishery management which have led to the establishment of a modern sciencebased resource management (SM), characteristic of a colonial project of domination. As a result, fishery collapsed in the first half of the 1970s and fishing industries filed bankruptcy in the 1980s. To solve the crisis in the fishery sector in the second half of the 1990s, Forum of Patos Lagoon (FLP) was created. It was at the Forum that the 2004 Normative Instruction (INC 2004), the current legislation which regulates fishing in the estuary of Patos Lagoon, was formulated. INC 2004 implements an SM by imposing a fishing calendar that becomes institutionalized and, therefore, officialized. The objective of this thesis is to describe the process of de-reterritorialization in the fishing communities of the estuary of the Patos Lagoon which was generated by the Modern State when it implemented INC 2004. To achieve this goal, data on TEK were obtained through open and semi-structured interviews and ethnoscientific bibliographic review. Data on knowledge, truths and values that support the formulation of INC 2004 were collected through open interviews held with researchers, who played a key role in mobilizing such intellectual resources and through bibliographic research on the four fisheries whose fishing periods are regulated by INC 2004. From the data obtained, it was necessary to develop our own proposal that fits the integrative perspective of territory: territory as knowledge. Under this proposal, the territory is an epistemic space originating from space. With the attempted implementation of INC 2004, an environmental territorial conflict has emerged in the production of space through the control of the use of fishery resources in the Patos Lagoon estuary. The Modern State, in a display of its colonial character, strategically operates upon space by trying to force the course of modernity on the fishing communities in the production of a disciplined epistemic space. The result, if the Modern State were successful in its project of cultural colonialism would be an epistemicide: the elimination of multi-territories operated by TEK with a multicalendaric dynamics in each of the artisanal fishing communities of the estuary and its replacement by a territory operated by Western rationality, with a mechanical rhythm through the imposition of the official calendar of INC 2004. Fishing communities, in turn, resist quietly and openly by operating tactically via TEK in the production of spaces of R-existence. Surprisingly, in diagrammatic infinite movements, both the Modern State and fishing communities de-reterritorialize one another.

「發展」涉及改造社會的整體想像，產業即是發展政策中相當重要的一環，產業的變遷不僅改變了一個社會的生產模式和分工方式，亦會改變一個社會中的空間和性別關係。本研究運用：參與觀察、深度訪談、焦點團體座談會和參與式製圖等方法、以性別的觀點來探究比雅楠部落從以小米為主食的燒墾農業轉型到當代以高麗菜為主要經濟作物的發展過程中部落的空間變化。本研究有三個主要的研究發現。一是政府的發展政策牽動了部落的空間與性別關係的改變；二是比雅楠部落的兩性有著不同的發展軌跡，男性較快投入市場經濟中、其勞動也被換算為較高的薪資，女性的勞動所賺取的薪資較少；三是女性保留並實踐更多的生態知識─包含對物種的知識、對人際協商的知識。總結本研究發現，筆者認為當比雅楠部落面臨到現代工業化發展所帶來的負面影響時，這些女性保存並實踐的生態知識是部落尋求替代性發展的契機。 / Development demands active imaginations toward transforming a society in which industrial transformation is a decisive part. Industrial transformation not only changes a society’s mode of production and labor division, but also changes its space and gender relationships. By employing the methods of participatory mapping, focused group discussions and in-depth interviews, this study attempts to explore Pyanan community’s experiences of industrial transformation particularly from the aspects of space and gender. There are three main findings in this study. Firstly, the government’s development policies are the main cause for the changes of Pyanan community. Secondly, this study shows that Indigenous men and women have experienced different changes in the industrial development process, like Indigenous men’s work is priced higher than the women’s under similar working condition. Thirdly, Indigenous women preserve and practice much more traditional ecological knowledge than Indigenous men. In conclusion, this study suggests that the traditional ecological knowledge preserved and practiced by Indigenous women could be the key to seek alternative development strategies while the community faces the negative influences from the modern industrial development.

As North American plants took root in Parisian botanical gardens and regularly appeared in scientific texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they retained their connections to networks of ecological and cultural exchange in colonial North America. In this dissertation I study the history of French botany and natural history as it became an Atlantic enterprise during this time, analyzing the production of knowledge about North American flora and the place of this knowledge in larger processes of colonialism and imperial expansion in the French Atlantic World. I focus particular attention on recovering the role of aboriginal peoples in the production of knowledge about colonial environments on both sides of the Atlantic. Rather than integrating aboriginal collectors, chefs and healers into traditional histories of western science, I integrate familiar histories of science into larger histories of cultural contact in an Atlantic World with multiple centres of knowledge production and exchange. This dissertation develops two closely related arguments. First, I argue that French encounters with American environments and Native cultures were inseparable. Jesuit missionaries, for example, called both a plant and a native culture “wild rice,” conflating descriptions of local ecological and morphological features of the Great Lakes plant with accounts of indigenous cultural and moral attributes. Second, “Plants and Peoples” also analyzes the process by which the Paris-based Académie Royale des Sciences expanded its reach into North America and argues that French colonial naturalists drew on a vibrant conversation between diverse colonial and indigenous communities. Yet indigenous participation and the knowledges they provided were progressively effaced over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This research therefore presents both a new understanding of the history of early modern and enlightenment botany and a lens through which to revisit and enrich familiar histories of cultural exchange in colonial North America.

In the past, the indigenous knowledge of soils of small-scale farmers in South Africa has been largely ignored in scientific research. Hence the use of scientific approaches to land evaluation has often failed to improve land use in rural areas where understanding of the prescriptive scientific logic is lacking. Despite this, it is clear that local people and smallscale farmers have knowledge of their lands based on soil and land characteristics that remain largely unknown to the scientific community. It is therefore important for researchers to understand farmers’ knowledge of soil classification and management. To address this issue, a study was conducted in the uMbumbulu area of KwaZulu-Natal to investigate the use of indigenous knowledge as well as farmers’ perceptions and assessments of soil fertility. A preliminary questionnaire was designed to explore indigenous knowledge in a group interview that was conducted prior to the study. Another questionnaire was used to elicit indigenous knowledge from 59 randomly chosen homesteads representative of the population of Ezigeni and Ogagwini villages. Six homesteads were chosen for further detailed information on the cropping history, knowledge specific to the cultivated lands, detailed soil description and fertility. Soil samples were taken from these homesteads under different land uses (taro, fallow, veld and vegetable) at 0-30 and 30-60 cm depth for laboratory analysis. This was done to determine the effect of land use on soil physical and chemical properties and soil microbial activity. For scientific evaluation a general purpose free soil survey was conducted to produce land capability and suitability maps. Farmers identified ten soil types using soil morphological characteristics, mainly soil colour and texture. These soil properties were also used in the farmers’ land suitability assessment. In addition, slope position, natural vegetation and village location were used to indicate land suitability. The amount of topsoil was also used in land evaluation. However, slope position was considered the most important factor as it affects the pattern of soils and hence their suitability. Soils on the footslope were considered more suitable for crops than those found on the midslope and upslope. The yield difference observed between villages, which were higher in Ogagwini than Ezigeni, was also used as a criterion for evaluation. Farmers attributed these yield differences for various crops to the effect of soil type on productivity. In support, scientific evaluation found that Ezigeni village had a number of soils with a heavy textured, pedocutanic B horizon and hence a relatively shallow effective rooting depth. Moreover, the Ezigeni village land suitability was limited in places by poor drainage and stoniness. These limitations were rarely found for the Ogagwini village soils. Farmers had a total of six comprehensive and well defined soil fertility indicators, namely crop yield, crop appearance, natural vegetation, soil texture, soil colour and presence of mesofauna. Results showed that farmers’ fertility perceptions are more holistic than those of researchers. However, despite this, their assessment correlated with soil analysis. There was a close relationship between scientific and indigenous suitability evaluation for three commonly cultivated crops (taro, maize and dry beans). This was further substantiated by yield measurements which were significantly higher for Ogagwini as rated by both farmers and scientific evaluation as the more suitable. The significant agreements between the scientific and indigenous approaches imply that there are fundamental similarities between them. Recognizing this and subsequently integrating the two approaches will produce land use plans relevant and profitable for both small-scale farmers and scientists. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Ethno-archaeological evidence shows that taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] originated in Asia. It may have been brought into South Africa a few hundred years after 300 BC from Madagascar, where Malaysian settlers introduced it about 300 BC. The crop is grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, largely for subsistence on farms. In South Africa, taro is mainly produced in the subtropical coastal belt, stretching from Bizana in the Eastern Cape to the KwaZulu-Natal north coast. Although it is a staple crop for the subsistence farmers who grow it, there are no data on taro agronomy in South Africa. The hypothesis of this study was that traditional knowledge about taro production practices is not adequate to form a basis for agronomic and extension interventions to promote the status of the crop to that of a commercial commodity. A survey was conducted at two districts in KwaZulu-Natal, Umbumbulu and Ndwedwe, where taro is a staple crop. The objective of the survey was to determine the cultural practices associated with taro production, including knowledge about varieties, agronomy, plant protection, storage and marketing. Qualitative data obtained from the survey was used to plan an investigation into the agronomy of taro. The survey showed that subsistence farmers at Ndwedwe and Umbumbulu used traditional methods for taro production that had very small influence from the extension services from the Department of Agriculture. The farmers identified three varieties of taro, which they designated as the "red", "white" and "Zulu" types. The "red" and "white" designations were based on consistent crop morphological characteristics. This finding confirmed the reliability of indigenous knowledge for crop classification.The survey also revealed that wetland and dryland conditions are used to produce taro. At Umbumbulu, production occurred predominantly under dryland conditions, whereas at Ndwedwe there was an almost even utilisation of both wetlands and drylands. At both locations, the farmers estimated plant spacing using their feet, which showed that the plant populations would be about 18400 plants ha(-1). Full corms were a predominant type of propagation material. In the light of the survey findings about site types (wetland or dryland), propagation material and plant spacing for taro production, field experiments were designed to 1) determine the effect of site type on taro production, 2) compare three propagule types (full corm, full corm with a shoot and half corm) in taro production and 3) examine the effect of planting density (18400, 24600 and 37000 plants ha(-1) on the performance of propagules with respect to production under wetland and dryland conditions. Field experiments showed that wetland cultivation improved taro yield by 40% compared with dryland production. However, in each of the two site categories, there were significant differences between sites. Using full corms with shoots also enhanced taro yield (42% > full corms without shoots and 66% > half corms), when means were determined across all sites and planting densities. Increasing planting density also caused an increase in taro production (4.9 t ha (-1), 6.8 t ha (-1) and 11.5 t ha (-1), for 18400,24600 and 37000 plants ha,(-1), respectively; LSD (0.05) = 1.4 t ha,1). The enhanced performance of taro under wetland conditions, where corms with a shoot were used and at high planting densities may have been associated with photosynthetic efficiency. Wetland conditions and corms with shoots improved plant emergence and plant growth, which are essential agronomic conditions for efficient capture of the sun's energy for photosynthesis. It is proposed that using propagules with shoots and high plant populations under dryland conditions could enhance taro production. Although wetland cultivation enhanced yield, the survey showed that the total area of land that could be used for wetland cultivation at Ndwedwe and Umbumbulu was too small to warrant sustainable wetland production. / Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

As North American plants took root in Parisian botanical gardens and regularly appeared in scientific texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they retained their connections to networks of ecological and cultural exchange in colonial North America. In this dissertation I study the history of French botany and natural history as it became an Atlantic enterprise during this time, analyzing the production of knowledge about North American flora and the place of this knowledge in larger processes of colonialism and imperial expansion in the French Atlantic World. I focus particular attention on recovering the role of aboriginal peoples in the production of knowledge about colonial environments on both sides of the Atlantic. Rather than integrating aboriginal collectors, chefs and healers into traditional histories of western science, I integrate familiar histories of science into larger histories of cultural contact in an Atlantic World with multiple centres of knowledge production and exchange. This dissertation develops two closely related arguments. First, I argue that French encounters with American environments and Native cultures were inseparable. Jesuit missionaries, for example, called both a plant and a native culture “wild rice,” conflating descriptions of local ecological and morphological features of the Great Lakes plant with accounts of indigenous cultural and moral attributes. Second, “Plants and Peoples” also analyzes the process by which the Paris-based Académie Royale des Sciences expanded its reach into North America and argues that French colonial naturalists drew on a vibrant conversation between diverse colonial and indigenous communities. Yet indigenous participation and the knowledges they provided were progressively effaced over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This research therefore presents both a new understanding of the history of early modern and enlightenment botany and a lens through which to revisit and enrich familiar histories of cultural exchange in colonial North America.

À une époque où la notion de patrimoine culturel immatériel est de plus en plus utilisée à l’échelle internationale, les populations s’approprient le concept localement. Il en va ainsi en Bretagne. La musique et la danse bretonne sont pleines de vitalité, tout en ayant conservé leur aspect patrimonial ; les autres éléments du patrimoine culturel immatériel pourraient-ils connaître une même revitalisation ? Notre thèse traite des témoignages sur l’ethnobotanique en Haute-Bretagne, c’est-à-dire relatifs aux savoirs et savoir-faire populaires liés aux plantes. Ils sont étudiés à travers l’analyse d’archives orales conservées au sein du milieu associatif et issues d’enquêtes et de collectages. Ce sont les plantes citées dans les recueils des folkloristes haut-bretons, à la fin du XIXe siècle, qui reviennent le plus souvent dans les archives sonores, un siècle plus tard. Les enregistrements de témoignages ethnobotaniques et les recueils des folkloristes, peu précis sur les modalités des savoirs, visent davantage à la sauvegarde des connaissances qu’à leur possible revitalisation. Par le dépôt patrimonial dans des structures de conservation, elles connaissent une première forme de valorisation, à travers leur traitement documentaire. Celui-ci opère une mise à distance, en transformant les témoignages en archives. Les archives orales, jusqu’alors considérées comme de simples matériaux de terrain, accèdent ainsi à de multiples possibilités de réutilisations. Elles créent chez l’auditeur un sentiment d’appartenance et lui permettent de renouer avec la tradition orale. / At a time when the concept of intangible cultural heritage is increasingly used internationally, it also applies locally. This is the case in Brittany where folk music and dance are very much alive and popular all while maintaining their traditional characteristics. Could other types of intangible cultural heritage undergo a similar revitalization? This thesis examines recordings relating to ethnobotanical knowledge in eastern Brittany, namely folk knowledge and practices involving plants. The work was carried out by analyzing oral archives, compiled through interviews and fieldwork, that had been preserved in community organizations. These recordings predominantly refer to the same plants folklorists documented in eastern Brittany at the end of the 19th century. The oral accounts and information gathered by folklorists a century earlier don’t give details such as specific formulations, method of preparation, doses, etc. They aimed more at preserving general knowledge about these traditions than at the possibility of reviving them. Preserving these traditions by documenting them is an initial form of recognition. Documentation transforms accounts into archives. Oral archives, formerly considered simple field work, thus come to offer many possibilities for reuse. They give the listener a sense of belonging and make it possible to reconnect with the oral tradition.