Global WEIRDing: Transitions in Wild Plant Knowledge and Treatment Preferences in Congo Hunter-gatherers

Overview

Journal Evol Hum Sci

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Aug 17

PMID 37588372

Authors

Gul Deniz Salali

Mark Dyble

Nikhil Chaudhary

Gaurav Sikka

Inez Derkx

Sarai M Keestra

Daniel Smith

James Thompson

Lucio Vinicius

Andrea Bamberg Migliano

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Cultures around the world are converging as populations become more connected. On the one hand this increased connectedness can promote the recombination of existing cultural practices to generate new ones, but on the other it may lead to the replacement of traditional practices and . Here we examine the process and causes of changes in cultural traits concerning wild plant knowledge in Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers from Congo. Our results show that the BaYaka who were born in town reported knowing and using fewer plants than the BaYaka who were born in forest camps. Plant uses lost in the town-born BaYaka related to medicine. Unlike the forest-born participants, the town-born BaYaka preferred Western medicine over traditional practices, suggesting that the observed decline of plant knowledge and use is the result of replacement of cultural practices with the new products of cumulative culture.

Citing Articles

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