Research Methods Leading to a Perception of Knowledge Loss—One Century of Plant Use Documentation Among the Chácobo in Bolivia

• Published in: Economic botany 2018-03, Vol.72 (1), p.81-93
• Main Authors: Bussmann, Rainer W., Paniagua-Zambrana, Narel Y., Hart, Robbie E., Huanca, Araceli L. Moya, Ortiz-Soria, Gere, Ortiz-Vaca, Milton, Ortiz-Álvarez, David, SoriaMorán, Jorge, Soria-Morán, María, Chávez, Saúl, Chávez-Moreno, Bertha, Chávez-Moreno, Gualberto, Roca, Oscar, Siripi, Erlin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adults; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bolivia; Boom; cultivars; demographic statistics; Demographics; Demography; Ecological monitoring; Ethnobotany; Hypotheses; income; Income generation; indigenous knowledge; indigenous peoples; Industrial plants; interviews; inventories; Knowledge; languages; Life Sciences; livelihood; manufacturing; Medicinal plants; medicine; Perception; Perceptions; Plant Anatomy/Development; Plant Ecology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Research methodology; Research methods; researchers; Studies
• ISSN: 0013-0001; 1874-9364
• DOI: 10.1007/s12231-018-9401-y

The loss of traditional knowledge, concomitant with changes in livelihoods, languages, and demographics of indigenous and local groups, is a global concern. However, documenting such loss poses serious methodological challenges. Comparing the results of contemporary studies with past research is often problematic due to methodological differences. Here, comparing studies that attempted to document the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of the Chacobo of Bolivia, we tried to examine whether knowledge loss was really occurring across more than 100 years or was only researcher's perception. The Chácobo are a Panoan-speaking tribe of about 1000 members, first visited by researchers in 1911, and subsequently in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Each study had different foci, but all recorded ethnobotanical data. The first more detailed anthropological report exists from the late 1960s, and ecological-ethnobotanical studies were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. Based on available literature, in particular the botanical studies of Boom (1987) and Bergeron (1998), it seemed that Chácobo plant use now centers on income generation. Both Boom (1987) and Bergeron (1998) perceived that traditional plant use related to household artifacts and medicine, as well as traditional crop varieties had almost disappeared. Here, we hypothesized that plant knowledge documented and the perception of so-called knowledge loss observed in these depended completely on the background of the interviewers and the methods employed, and that in a sufficiently comprehensive ethnobotanical study, we would be able to document all species and uses mentioned in previous studies. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a complete ethnobotanical inventory of almost the entire adult Chácobo population, with interviews and plant collection conducted direcdy by Chácobo counterparts. The results verify our initial hypothesis and showed that the loss of knowledge perceived in previous studies simply was an artifact of the research methods employed. Traditional crop varieties are still widely grown, most Chacobo know, and can name, traditional artifacts, and many still know the names and uses of medicinal species. However, some knowledge, including the manufacture of artifacts and proficient identification of many medicinal plants, is limited to the older generation. La pérdida del conocimiento tradicional, los cambios en los medios de subsistencia, la pérdida de las lenguas locales, y la re