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

该研究项目涉及一名民族植物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社区的成员如何选择药用植物。该项目基于参与性观察、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。这名研究人员将与玛雅印第安人专家一起收集药用植物，在他们选择（和拒绝）植物的药理功效时向他们提问。此外，还将请印度植物收集专家确定已收集的一套药用植物的特征。最终的结果将是对玛雅印第安药用植物使用的认知和植物学方面的深入分析。论文的研究是与其他研究在这一领域的印第安人的民族医学合作，并将有助于和受益于其他研究。这项研究很重要，因为了解人们如何在一个充满活力的药用植物自然系统中选择特定疾病的植物，将促进我们对人类对医疗保健的基本认知，以及这一领域植物的药用属性的认识。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.