Dissertation Research: Medicinal Plant Selection Criteria of the Tzeltal Maya of Highland Chiapas

这项研究项目涉及一名民族植物学人类学研究生的论文研究，他将研究墨西哥南部玛雅印第安人社区的成员如何选择药用植物。该项目基于参与者观察、植物实地调查、结构化访谈和词典编纂技术，代表了对玛雅印第安人识别药用植物所需信息的深入研究。研究人员将与专家玛雅印第安人一起收集药用植物，在他们选择(和拒绝)植物的药理功效时对它们进行询问。此外，印度植物采集专家将被要求确定已经采集的一组药用植物的特征。最终结果将是对玛雅印第安人药用植物的认知和植物学方面的深入分析。本论文的研究是与印度民族医学领域的其他研究合作进行的，将对其他研究做出贡献并从中受益。这项研究很重要，因为了解拥有充满活力的自然药用植物系统的人是如何为特定疾病选择植物的，将促进我们对人类关于医疗保健的基本认知的了解，以及这一地区植物的药用属性的知识。记录和保存土著民族植物学和民族医学知识是保护全球生物多样性的重要组成部分。

This research project involves the dissertation research of a graduate student in ethno-botanical anthropology who will study how members of a Mayan Indian community in southern Mexico select medicinal plants. The project, based on participant observation, field surveys for plants, structured interviewing and lexicographic techniques, represents an in-depth study of the information Mayan Indians need to identify medicinal plants. The researcher will collect medicinal plants with expert Mayan Indians, questioning them as they select (and reject) plants for their pharmacological efficacy. In addition expert Indian plant collectors will be asked to define the characteristics of an already collected set of medicinal plants. The end result will be an in-depth analysis of the cognitive as well as botanical aspects of Mayan Indian medicinal plant use. The dissertation research is in collaboration with other research on the ethnomedicine of Indians in this area, and will contribute to and benefit from this other research. This research is important because understanding how people with a vibrant natural system of medicinal plant use select plants for specific illnesses will advance our knowledge of basic human cognition about health care, and of the medicinal attributes of plants in this area. Recording and preserving indigenous ethnobotanical and ethnomedical knowledge is an important part of preserving global biodiversity.