Foraging in Boreal Forest: Wild Food Plants of the Republic of Karelia, NW Russia

Outdoor activities foster local plant knowledge in Karelia, NE Europe

Wild edible plants, particularly berries, are relevant nutritional elements in the Nordic countries. In contrast to decreasing global trends, approximately 60% of the Finnish population is actively involved in (berry) foraging. We conducted 67 interviews with Finns and Karelians living in Finnish Karelia to: (a) detect the use of wild edible plants, (b) compare those results with the published data about neighbouring Russian Karelians, and (c) document the sources of local plant knowledge. The results revealed three main findings. First, we observed a similarity in wild food plant knowledge among Karelians and Finns from Karelia. Second, we detected divergences in wild food plant knowledge among Karelians living on both sides of the Finnish-Russian border. Third, the sources of local plant knowledge include vertical transmission, acquisition through literary sources, acquisition from "green" nature shops promoting healthy lifestyles, childhood foraging activities performed during the famine period following WWII, and outdoor recreational activities. We argue that the last two types of activities in particular may have influenced knowledge and connectedness with the surrounding environment and its resources at a stage of life that is crucial for shaping adult environmental behaviours. Future research should address the role of outdoor activities in maintaining (and possibly enhancing) local ecological knowledge in the Nordic countries.

Promotion of Wild Food Plant Use Diversity in the Soviet Union, 1922-1991

In the Soviet Union, wild food played a secondary role in diet (as cultivated species dominated). Yet the authorities eventually acknowledged their importance as diet diversifiers and a safety reservoir, and started to promote their use through various means, including publishing books on the use of wild food plants. These government publications appeared during a specific time, and therefore, we mapped all centralized publications in order to understand the dynamics of the promotion of wild-plant-related knowledge. For deeper analysis, we selected a sample of 12 books promoting wild food plants, and compared the taxa and uses represented in these works, which fall into two key periods: during World War II (1941-1943) and after the war (1953-1989). A total of 323 plant taxa belonging to 69 plant families were named, of which Rosaceae had the highest number of proposed food uses, prompting the reader to explore the use of borderland species. Most diverse food uses were attributed to Sorbus aucuparia, followed by Rosa and Vaccinium oxycoccos. Wartime books had fewer taxa with less variety, with a clear preference for staple food and substitutes, while post-war books promoted desserts and alcoholic drinks.

Promotion of Wild Food Plant Use Diversity in the Soviet Union, 1922-1991

In the Soviet Union, wild food played a secondary role in diet (as cultivated species dominated). Yet the authorities eventually acknowledged their importance as diet diversifiers and a safety reservoir, and started to promote their use through various means, including publishing books on the use of wild food plants. These government publications appeared during a specific time, and therefore, we mapped all centralized publications in order to understand the dynamics of the promotion of wild-plant-related knowledge. For deeper analysis, we selected a sample of 12 books promoting wild food plants, and compared the taxa and uses represented in these works, which fall into two key periods: during World War II (1941-1943) and after the war (1953-1989). A total of 323 plant taxa belonging to 69 plant families were named, of which Rosaceae had the highest number of proposed food uses, prompting the reader to explore the use of borderland species. Most diverse food uses were attributed to Sorbus aucuparia, followed by Rosa and Vaccinium oxycoccos. Wartime books had fewer taxa with less variety, with a clear preference for staple food and substitutes, while post-war books promoted desserts and alcoholic drinks.

Historical Review of Ethnopharmacology in Karelia (1850s-2020s): Herbs and healers

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

The traditional medicine of various peoples populating Russia is strongly underrepresented in the international anthropological literature. In addition, it has a multicomponent structure, a long history of relations with official medicine, and is still a living system with many people using folk remedies and visiting ritual specialists.

AIM OF THE STUDY

The article is a review of folk medicine in Karelia (north-west part of Russia) providing a short description of the history of medicine in this region and a comparison of folk medicine among Karelians and Russians.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The review analyzes and systematizes published and unpublished sources related to the main remedies used by the local populations - plants, animal products, minerals, etc. - from the 1850s-2000s, tracking the main tendencies in publications about the folk medicine of Karelians and Russians of Karelia.

RESULTS

A total of 104 medicinal plants belonging to 46 families were mentioned as medicinal. In total, they represented 386 uses which demonstrate the leading role of plant remedies in the folk medicine of Karelia. The plant species with the most uses were Betula sp., Plantago sp., Rubus idaeus, Viburnum opulus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, and Daphne mezereum. Medicinal uses of other origins had more modest numbers: animal remedies included 146 uses, and mineral ones 43 uses. Among animal-based remedies, physiological discharges of the human body were the most popular; fish oil and bear body parts were the most used from the wild, while from the household various components of cows, horses, and dogs were used. Animal remedies were mostly used for healing furuncles, scrofula, frostbite, hernia, and lanugo. The most diversely used mineral remedy was salt.

CONCLUSIONS

Karelians and Russians are very disproportionally represented in the literature due to the lack of interest in the folk medicine of Russians in Karelia, in contrast to that of Karelians. The disparity does not allow adequate comparison, but nonetheless the available data demonstrate that the remedies shared by both ethnic groups are quite few. The review also contributes to research on the relationship of folk medicine and various state institutions in Russia/the Soviet Union.

A microbotanical and microwear perspective to plant processing activities and foodways at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük is a renowned archaeological site in central Anatolia, best known for its Neolithic occupation dated from 7100 to 6000 cal BC. The site received worldwide attention early on for its large size, well-preserved mudbrick architecture, and elaborate wall paintings. Excavations at the site over almost three decades have unearthed rich archaeobotanical remains and a diverse ground stone assemblage produced by what once was a vibrant farming community. The study presented here adds to our understanding of crops and plant processing at Çatalhöyük by integrating phytoliths and starch analyses on grinding implements found at three domestic contexts attributed to the Middle (6700–6500 cal BC) and Late (6500–6300 cal BC) period of occupation. Our results reveal a rich microbotanical assemblage that testifies the use of a wide range of geophytes and wild seasonal resources previously unknown at the site. Moreover, by comparing results from the microbotanical proxies and microscopic wear patterns on artefacts, we are also able to discern various plant processing practices the analysed artefacts were employed for. In sum, this work further expands our understanding of plants and crop processing activities performed by the inhabitants of Neolithic Çatalhöyük.

A Comprehensive Appraisal of the Wild Food Plants and Food System of Tribal Cultures in the Hindu Kush Mountain Range; a Way Forward for Balancing Human Nutrition and Food Security

The tribal belt of the Hindu Kush mountains is famous for its unique culture, ethnography, wild food plants, food systems, and traditional knowledge. People in this region gather wild plants and plant parts using them directly or in traditional cuisine, or sell them in local markets. However, there is a huge lack of documentation of the food system, particularly that related to wild food plants (WFP). In the current study, we focus on the uses and contributions of WFPs in the traditional tribal food system of the Hindu Kush valleys along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Ethnobotanical data were gathered through questionnaire surveys of 84 informants, including 69 men and 15 women, belonging to 21 different villages of the chosen area. In tribal societies men and women rarely mix and thus very few women took part in the surveys. We documented 63 WFP species belonging to 34 botanical families, of which 27 were used as vegetables, 24 as fruits, six in different kinds of chutneys (starters), and six as fresh food species. Fruits were the most used part (41%), followed by leaves (24%), aerial parts (24%), seeds (7%), stems (3%), and young inflorescences (1%). The reported uses of Carthamus oxyacantha, Pinus roxburghii seeds, and Marsilea quadrifolia leaves are novel for the gastronomy of Pakistan. The results reveal that WFPs provide a significant contribution to local food systems and play a role in addressing human nutritional needs, which are usually not met through farming practices. The tribal peoples of the Hindu Kush use WFPs for their nutritional value, but also as a cultural practice—an inseparable component of the tribal community’s lifestyle. This important traditional knowledge about the gathering and consumption of WFPs, however, is eroding at an alarming rate among younger generations due to the introduction of fast-food, modernization, and globalization. Therefore, appropriate strategies are imperative not only to safeguard traditional plants and food knowledge and practices, as well as the cultural heritage attached to them, but also to foster food security and thus public healthcare via local wild foods in the region.

Wild Foods: A Topic for Food Pre-History and History or a Crucial Component of Future Sustainable and Just Food Systems?

The ethnobiology of wild foods has garnered increasing attention in food studies in recent years, since traditional foodways in less urbanized and globalized areas of the world are sometimes still based on often neglected or even largely unknown wild plant, animal, fungal, microorganism, and mineral ingredients, as well as their food products and culinary preparations [...].

Language of Administration as a Border: Wild Food Plants Used by Setos and Russians in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, NW Russia

Socio-economic changes impact local ethnobotanical knowledge as much as the ecological ones. During an ethnobotanical field study in 2018-2019, we interviewed 25 Setos and 38 Russians in the Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast to document changes in wild plant use within the last 70 years according to the current and remembered practices. Of the 71 botanical taxa reported, the most popular were Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Vaccinium oxycoccos, Vaccinium myrtillus, Betula spp., and Rumex acetosa. The obtained data was compared with that of 37 Setos and 35 Estonians interviewed at the same time on the other side of the border. Our data revealed a substantial level of homogeneity within the plants used by three or more people with 30 of 56 plants overlapping across all four groups. However, Seto groups are ethnobotanically closer to the dominant ethnic groups immediately surrounding them than they are to Setos across the border. Further study of minor ethnic groups in a post-Soviet context is needed, paying attention to knowledge transmission patterns.

The Power of Wild Plants in Feeding Humanity: A Meta-Analytic Ethnobotanical Approach in the Catalan Linguistic Area

Wild food plants (WFP) have always been present in our kitchen, although they have not always been given the same importance as crops. In the Catalan linguistic area (CLA), covered in this paper, WFP were of great importance as a subsistence food not only during the years of the Spanish civil war (1936–1939) and World War II (1939–1945), but also long before these periods and in the years thereafter. The CLA has been well studied at the level of traditional knowledge on plant biodiversity, and much of this information is collected in a database by the EtnoBioFiC research group. The aim of this work is to carry out a meta-analysis of the WFP dataset of the CLA (only regarding edible uses, drinks excluded) and to identify the most quoted plants, and the information associated with them. With data from 1659 informants, we recorded 10,078 use reports of 291 taxa (278 of which at specific or subspecific levels and 13 only determined at generic level) belonging to 67 families. The most reported taxa, also with highest cultural importance indexes, are Thymus vulgaris, Foeniculum vulgare subsp. piperitum, Laurus nobilis, Rubus ulmifolius and Mentha spicata. The ethnobotanicity index for food plants is 6.62% and the informant consensus factor, also for food uses, is a very high 0.97, supporting the robustness of the information. The results provided and discussed in this work concern a significant part of the edible resources in the territory considered, which is, often and mainly, underestimated and underutilised. Its consideration could be an opportunity to promote closer and more sustainable agriculture. From the state-of-the-art of this question, it is possible to propose old, in some cases forgotten foods that could be newly introduced onto the market, first, but not only, at a local level, which could be interesting for new crop development in the frame of a valorisation of territorial identity.