Dissertation Research: Ethnomedicine of Tanzania in Ecological Perspective

发展中国家绝大多数人依靠药用植物来提供初级保健和治疗艾滋病毒/艾滋病，但这些植物得不到保护、监测，甚至不了解其采集和使用的背景或范围。本论文由一位文化人类学家对坦桑尼亚坦加的药用植物利用和管理情况进行研究。以一个具有高度生物和文化多样性的特定地点为例，本研究利用参与性、民族志和民族植物学方法，调查当地的生态知识、信仰和与自然资源管理有关的行为，特别是与药用植物有关的行为;药用植物的文化、民族医学、经济和生态背景;收藏者管理的潜在生态后果;以及用于识别不同用途的特定植物的选择标准。该研究将包括药用植物市场调查;多个半和非结构化的采访3组药用植物收藏家，包括奠定，商业和专业收藏家;当地生态知识调查与相同的收藏家;仔细观察药用植物收集和管理活动;和生态实验。在当地植物学家的协助下，生态实验将测试两个关于收获和管理对生物多样性影响的对立假设：收获较多的地区生物多样性较少（这表明了不可持续的做法），而且收获较多的地区生物多样性更高，因为收集者促进了植物个体或植物种群的生长，（这表明管理正在发生，而不仅仅是提取）。这项研究的更广泛的影响涉及加强坦桑尼亚研究人员和美国研究人员之间的现有联系和建立新的联系，并以有意义和可访问的方式向政府卫生规划人员、在坦桑尼亚工作的非政府组织和研究界本身传达研究结果。通过宣传当地人民及其生态知识，这项研究将有助于设计文化上适当的资源管理和药用植物的可持续利用。这项研究有可能改善坦桑尼亚的生态保护和人类健康工作，并为世界上依赖药用植物管理健康的其他地区提供示范。该项目由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

The overwhelming majority of people in developing countries rely on medicinal plants for primary health care and for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, yet these plants go without protection, monitoring, or even a comprehension as to the context or extent of their collection and use. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist will study the circumstances of medicinal plant use and management in Tanga, Tanzania. Using a specific location with high biological and cultural diversity as an example, this study utilizes participatory, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical methods to investigate local ecological knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors related to natural resource management in general and to medicinal plants in particular; the cultural, ethnomedical, economic, and ecological contexts of medicinal plants; the potential ecological consequences of management by collectors; and the selection criteria used to identify particular plants for diverse uses. The research will include medicinal plant market surveys; multiple semi- and unstructured interviews with 3 groups of medicinal plant collectors including lay, commercial, and specialist collectors; a local ecological knowledge survey with the same collectors; careful observation of medicinal plant collecting and management activities; and an ecological experiment. With assistance from local botanists, the ecological experiment will test two opposing hypotheses about harvesting and management impacts on biodiversity: that areas subjected to more harvest are less biologically diverse (which suggests unsustainable practices), and that areas subjected to more harvest are more biologically diverse because collectors promote the growth of individual plants or populations of plants, (which suggests management is occurring, not mere extraction). The broader impacts of this research involve strengthening existing links and building new links between Tanzanian researchers and U.S. researchers, and conveying the research findings in meaningful and accessible ways to government health planners, NGOs working in Tanzania, and to the research communities themselves. By privileging local people and their ecological knowledge, this research will contribute to the design of culturally appropriate resource management and to the sustainable use of medicinal plants. The research has the potential to improve both ecological conservation and human health efforts in Tanzania and to serve as a model for other regions of the world that rely on medicinal plants for managing health. This project is cofunded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.