Dissertation Research: Native Perceptions of Plant Efficacy Among Indigenous Cultures of Peru

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This award to the University of California-Berkeley funds the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. The problem is to understand how native Americans identify medicinal plants in the forest. The student will assess native perceptions of specific cues of taste, smell, or feel (bitterness, sweetness, astringency, aromatic smell, prickly texture, etc. ) which are thought to indicate therapeutic efficacy. A `taste and smell` experiment will be conducted whereby Indian informants are asked to describe items unfamiliar to the native palate, to provide an objective, comparative basis for defining the indigenous vocabulary of taste and smell. The student will also study how native perceptions of medicinal efficacy relate to native theories of disease causation, and how these correspond to Western pharmacological and medical knowledge. The methods include an ethnomedical health census, structured and semi-structured interviews, and the collection and analysis of botanical specimens. The native models of two Amerindian groups will be compared, to assess the degree of variability across unrelated cultural groups sharing a similar environment. This research is important because it will add to our expertise about this important region of the world and will advance our knowledge of how native peoples select and use medicinal plants. The study of medicinal plants used by indigenous peoples is especially important because it may reveal new cures for diseases, while at the same time promoting cultural and ecological conservation in indigenous areas.